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Country-Style Raspberry Almond Muffins

Moist and fluffy, these giant Country-Style Raspberry Almond Muffins are chock full of fresh raspberries and subtle almond flavouring.

When I was 16 until I left for university as a freshly minted 18-year-old, I worked summers at a local berry picking farm that, for good reason, I will leave nameless.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad. It was an incredibly beautiful area, full of the most quintessential ‘country’ things you could imagine: kilometres of rolling hay fields, dozens of sunflowers towering over even the tallest customer, a collection of adorable goats, chickens and rabbits that you could gently pet. And of course, the most mouth-watering, sun-drenched berries you have ever eaten.

But there were not so great times as well.

Angry customers, outraged over the price of their berries when they went to pay, despite an obvious sign at the front entrance with the prices. A verbally abusive boss that made me cry on multiple occasions. Extremely low morale among the employees.

And, one of the smallest annoyances but still a significant part, there were ‘famous’ farm pies that weren’t actually from the farm.

For real. They were branded with two letters that could be construed as the initials of our farm, but in fact came from a similarly named seller across town. I was told we could get away with saying they were ours by telling customers they were ‘baked fresh at our farm.’ Which, since we got them raw and put them into the oven, I suppose was true. But it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Fortunately, I don’t have to lie about these country-style raspberry muffins. 🙂 If you’re looking for the real, rugged country experience, you’ll find it in these muffins. Are these the feeble and uniform muffins you’ll make from a box mix? NOPE. These are huge, overflowing, fruit-streaked creations.

I often imagine bringing them to a friend’s house on the baking tray, holding the tin with a pretty but worn kitchen towel. Because movies have warped my mind about quaintness.

The recipe for these country-style raspberry almond muffins comes from my #1 favourite cookbook (and that’s saying something), The Homemade Kitchen by Alana Chernila. If you haven’t read her cookbook, I encourage you to either rent it from your local library or buy it. I did both, as just a few pages in, I knew I had to have my own copy.

Her cookbook is full of wonderful stories of her insanely beautiful, rustic life in the Berkshires. Even if you don’t make a single recipe (but you should!), just reading her heartfelt and calming writing is wonderful.

Chernila promises a fat, café style muffin in her cookbook, and oh boy does it work. I made these raspberry almond muffins at home for my boyfriend who proceeded to gobble them down with his morning coffee, and also made a blueberry almond version to bring as a food gift for one of my friends. Needless to say, very popular.

Grab a coffee, tea or straight up water and enjoy these moist, fruity creations for breakfast (or any time, really).

Check out CK on Instagram! If you try out one of my recipes, tag @CrumbKitchen so I can see your delicious creations. 🙂

Moist and fluffy, these giant Country-Style Raspberry Almond Muffins are chock full of fresh raspberries and subtle almond flavouring.

Author: Cassie @ Crumb Kitchen

Serves: 12 large muffins

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tbsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup salted butter, melted

1 cup almond milk

1 cup vanilla yogurt

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

½ tsp. almond extract

2.5 cups fresh or frozen raspberries*

½ cup sliced almonds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease a regular-sized muffin tin, including the top of the tin; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs just to combine the egg and yolk together. Pour in the melted butter, almond milk, yogurt, and both extracts and mix well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until moistened (do not overmix).

Add the raspberries and just barely stir twice or three times to combine. If you overmix, the berries will become mush and fall apart (less so for frozen berries).

Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, allowing the batter to overflow slightly. Sprinkle the almonds over top.

Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, rotating pan once, until muffins are golden brown. After cooling for 5 minutes in pan, remove and place upside down on a wire rack to cool.

Why it’s Cheap

Have you seen the cost of store-bought muffins lately?! Six pre-packaged, half-hearted attempts at muffins usually run you $5-8. Making a dozen huge, moist and fruit-loaded muffins for less than $7 is a steal.

Make it More Budget-Friendly

Swap the 1 cup of almond milk for 1 cup of regular ol’ milk. I use almond milk because that’s what I keep in the fridge, but any milk will do (skim, 2%, etc.). Buy fresh raspberries on sale (great deals this time of year), or if raspberries are out of season, stick to frozen. And if almonds are pricey at your grocery store, which they usually are, simply forgo them as toppings.